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DOJ punches back, but misses

By Mark Obbie

Joe Palazzolo at Legal Times' BLT posts about this interesting twist in a story that AP has been following. In her report on the Justice Department's decision to delay new rules designed to help the FBI track terror suspects, Lara Jakes Jordan drew an unusually pointed attack from DOJ flacks in this release titled “Setting the Record Straight: AP's Misleading Article on the Proposed Changes to the Attorney General's Guidelines.” Jordan portrayed the rules changes as a loosening of restrictions. The release -- in tellingly defensive language -- seems to say that nothing in fact is changing. Except that the DOJ proposed changes that it has now put on hold because of congressional doubts. So are the rules changing or not, and if so, how? The release is opaque and shifty. Palazzolo notes that the Times' Eric Lichtblau reported essentially the same interpretation of the rules changes as AP's Jordan, quoting Democratic senators. I can't tell who's right, but I do know that if I were a reporter covering this, the DOJ's press release would make me more suspicious of the department's spin, not less.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on August 22, 2008 (boomark / email).